


on the ruins and debris

by RSolya



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 07:22:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6319939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RSolya/pseuds/RSolya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Solana and Sidonis join forces to stop a conspiracy against galactic peace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	on the ruins and debris

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BardofHeartDive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BardofHeartDive/gifts).



The man she was trailing was honestly the most boring extremist she ever saw. So far he spent most of his day in some hanar vintage-styled teahouse, reading something on his datapad, and didn't seem to bother with doing anything that could prompt her to arrest him. He had a meeting with his extremist peers later and Solana hoped she could learn something valuable before then.

But as it stood, he was enjoying a calm, unsuspicious afternoon. She sighed and relaxed in her chair. She was sitting in a cafe directly across the street from the teahouse, watching the man from behind the glass. He was a turian named Sidonis, around two years younger than her, born outside the Hierarchy, a drop-out from basic, ex-merc and apparently, an extremist. Bailey said that just before the Reaper War he tried to get himself arrested for some crime commited in the Terminus. _So much for working with the law_ , Solana thought, pretending to read a datapad she had in front of her. At least he was somewhat attractive, shorter than her, but lean, with a symmetrical, youthful face. Nice colouring, too, a blend of darker and lighter colours.

 _Poster boy_ , she thought with disdain. Bailey should have sent him back to the Hierarchy two years ago, not let him run unchecked on the Citadel only to mix himself with radicals. And worst of all, resourceful radicals.

The group he's joined caught Bailey's attention a few months ago, when its de-facto leader, a wealthy enterpreneur with most of his assets located on Illium, Flavious Rystes, started a petition for re-applying the genophage. It gathered seven million signatures, enough to get attention and cause a heated debate within the Council, now consisting of five species' representatives, including the krogan.

Not everyone agreed with Shepard's decision to distribute the cure for the genophage during the war, but at the same time no one could deny it was what had to be done at the time. After the war, however, the krogan started demanding. They wanted some of their colonies back, they wanted garden worlds for their deeds during the war, they wanted reparations, they wanted people who worked on the modifiication of the genophage tried. A lot of people were displeased, including some of the more conservative turians in the likes of Rystes. His petition was rejected by the Council, but it didn't discourage him. Instead, he started gathering followers – some of them generals and commanders of the Hierarchy, but he didn't shy away from mercenaries as well.

And a few days ago, Garrus called her, practically begging for a meeting. When they did, he revealed that his unspecified source came across a message from Rystes to one of his generals that mentioned a plan that could possibly endanger galactic peace. Probed for information, he revealed that in fact, it wasn't a message, but a recording of a meeting, and that some of the people present were admirals of the Hierarchy.

“You have no proof it isn't fake,” she said, seated on the edge of the couch in her apartment. She felt nauseus. Most of her work now was tracking down frauds and financial crimes, not conspiracy.

“I'm sure it isn't,” Garrus answered and she sighed. Of course he was. He trusted his sources, whoever they were, and didn't trust her enough to reveal any more about them to her.

But he apparently trusted her – or more likely, needed her – to help him with this.

“They want to kidnap Urdnot Wrex's son,” he said. “They think it'll make him go to war, but I know him. It won't.”

“Then just tell him to be careful and problem solved,” Solana suggested, fearing where this was going.

“He's my friend,” Garrus said, looking at her with an almost pleading look he used when they were kids and he wanted her help. “Please, Sol. Batarians are causing problems in the Terminus and Victus needs me there. Everyone else's unavailable.”

Solana closed her eyes. Of course she'd help him, even though she didn't shoot a gun since the Reaper War. But she hated it, hated being plucked from her devoid-of-conspiracies life because of a younger brother who had no qualms about abadoning her in their mother's hospital room for two years.

So that how she's ended up here, watching a guy reading a book. At least Bailey helped, providing information on the people involved. But, as they quickly realized, not everyone was obviously with Rystes. Sidonis, for example, only came under the radar when Solana questioned a few of family memebers of the generals involved and hacked their accounts. He, and many others, were mostly guns-for-hire for the group

As for now, he didn’t seem to plan to move. She ordered a drink and prepared for waiting.

 

Around an hour before the meeting he finally got up.

She paid for her drinks and waited until he was a decent distance from her. Only then she left the cafe and went to the adjacent street to trail him. As it became apparent, the meeting wasn’t really far away. The man entered a building at the end of the street, a bar-turned-warehouse after the War, not a rare sight these days. She heard even the Omegan architect has been proposing turning Afterlife into a shelter or something. T’Loak didn’t agree, of course, but the fact that the architect had the guts to propose it spoke volumes about her faltering power.

Solana only had a general knowledge that a meeting for the mercs, most likely supposed to take part in the kidnapping, was going to take place, and when. She didn’t know the place or how many people were going to be there. She decided that entering the building would be too risky (especially since she wasn’t officialy with C-Sec), so she hacked into the man’s hearing aid (though with a singed permission from Bailey). Again, not a rare sight after the War, though she wondered why he hadn’t yet gotten a surgery. Especially since that model was rather easy to hack into, which should’ve worried a merc.

She sat on the bench in a small park nearby and tuned in.

 

She called Bailey as soon as one hour into the meeting. There was enough recorded from the hearing aid to warrant an arrest and they agreed it was better to get as many people as possible.

After the call, she got up from the bench and went on a stroll around the building. It was a nondescript grey, with bullet holes from the invasion of the Citadel still in the walls. The Presidium was the part of the station that was prioritized in getting rebuilt, and the Wards had to wait their turn. She heard cars approaching and felt a relief. It was over, she could come back to her boring work and not bother with Garrus’ problems anymore.

That’s what she thought, at least, until she saw Siodnis sneaking out of the building through the back door.

At first, she froze. Was chasing him really worth it? Bailey knew his name, he could deal with him later. But a voice in her head, suspiciously similar to that of her father’s, reminded her that he can really easily disappear in the detroyed parts of the Wards and then get out of the station.

She sighed and resumed trailing him.

 

This time, it wasn’t that easy. Sidonis constantly changed directions, so she had to be careful so as not to lose him. As if he expected a chase. Solana clenched her teeth and followed him into the aparment disctrict, lit mostly by dull-coloured signs, occasionally broken by a purple neon.

The place he was headed to was one of many apartment blocks in a row, built in a style resembling asari second wave modernism, which meant the doors to the apartments were located on a shared balcony. She wouldn’t even consider living like this, but it was perfect for her goal now.

She sent a quick message to Bailey, not letting Sidonis out of her sight. He was visible to her, and as soon as the doors closed to the apartment he’s been renting, it was time to move.

She climbed the stairs to the correct floor, feeling only a small pain in her left leg, and stood in the shadow of the balcony supporting columns, breathing heavily. She reached under her coat, feeling the hidden gun. It’s been long since she had to use it. She wished she wouldn’t have to.

She heard nothing when hacking the hearing aid again. _Maybe he’s run away_ , she thought and felt panic rise in her chest. If he escaped, he could alert Rystes. She couldn’t let him do it.

She went as quickly and quietly to the door, gun in hand. It took a quick hack to get them open, and she entered the apartment before she could hesitate.

It was almost completely dark, the only source of light being the window overlooking the inner garden of the block. She took a few steps inside, trying to see something in the darkness, and then she heard a click.

“Not a move,” said a voice to her right, somewhere from the shadows.“I have a gun.”

He was standing close enough to not miss her in the darkness, but at a distance that didn’t keep him out of her reach. Or, maybe, he didn’t knew how far she could reach. Solana felt herself grin.

“So do I.”

She moved down fast, away from the gun, and kicked the place she supposed his hand was. She was right, except he was aiming a bit too far to the right. He wouldn’t hit her even if he had time to shoot.

The gun fell from his hand and she saw a shape stumble back in the darkness. She threw herself at him, elbow aimed at him face. It connected as he hit the wall and she heard a satisfying groan.

He didn’t put much of a fight, to be honest. Or he was simply too slow for her. She managed to immobilize him and press him to the wall, digging her fingers under his mandible to prevent him from retaliating. If he tried something stupid, she would rip it from his face, and no turian wanted that.

“Move an inch and I’m going to rip half of your face out,” she hissed, feeling him tense. “Understood?”

“Yes.” There was something resigned in his voice, which struck her as odd.

“I want names. Who’s in charge of the kidnapping? Rystes?” Solana demanded, and was more than surprised to hear him anwer right away.

“Not Rystes. He just funds them and thinks he issues orders.” _Them, not us_ , she noted. “General Oprat is the one who deals with the mercs, but he takes orders from the admirals. I’ve never had a chance to meet them.”

“You didn’t seem to be the discreet type,” she noted. _He’s lying. He must be._

“If I wanted to be discreet, I wouldn’t wear an easily-hackable hearing aid to a meeting I knew C-Sec was interested in.” He actually chuckled. Solana blinked.

“You were helping us?”

“The point was rather to sell them out than to help anyone, but yes. I expected Oprat to be there though.” Sidonis sighed. “Can I have my arm back? I won’t attack you. You’re the one with the gun and you didn’t even point it at me.”

“You want me to start doing that?” she asked, but let him go. True to his words, he din’t attack. He just… turned around. She was taller than him - than anyone, really - and it didn’t feel intimidating at all.

He turned on the ceiling lamp. The dim light filled the room, but she still had to blink before getting adjusted to it. The turian didn’t move.

“You’re not with C-Sec, aren’t you?” Solana asked. It would make sense, to send someone to infiltrate Rystes’ group. But the man just shook his head.

“No, I work alone. But I wanted to rat them out for some time.” He laughed. “I never was the one for hacking, but it worked. You got their messages, and that led you to the meeting.”

“And that’s it? The mercs are arrested. They’re gonna have to forget about kidnapping.”

“Oh, no,” the man said, saddening in an instant. “From what I’ve gathered the mercs were a later part of the plan. They’ve been preparing for the kidnapping for a year now.”

“So that was useless,” Solana said, the familiar feeling of indifference coming back in full force. “A waste of time.”

“Hardly. They’re mostly operating from a half-destroyed space station and that’s where most of their resources are. They don’t hire that many mercs, it will take them some time to find more. And as I’m the only one that got out, they will want to hear what happened from me.” He flickered his mandibles in a smile.

“They might suspect you. They might want to extract information by force from you,” she said, sitting in a blue armchair nearby. She saw him tense briefly.

“I can handle this,” he said, but it sounded as if he was trying to convince himself more than her.

“Let’s go to Bailey,” Solana proposed. “Let’s go to him, he’ll send a squad to that station and all this will be over.”

“No. They have ships defending the station. And they are ex-turian military.” He glanced outside the window. “No, only one person can get in.”

Solana closed her eyes. She could almost see Garrus’ face in front of her. And mother’s, too. And there was her father’s voice in the back of her head, suggesting her what to do.

“What about two?”

 

“You didn’t have to join me,” said Sidonis from the cockpit as she was looking for a gun in the cabin. She was a bit surprised to find out he had a ship, albeit a small one. When she asked him where he got it, he just shrugged and said he came across it during the War.

He also had way many guns stored on it, in quanities that made Solana nervous when she discovered them. He seemed pretty fine with letting her borrow some though.

“It’s too late to turn around now,” she said, finally joining him on a bridge with a Carnifex in hand. He glanced at her.

“We can make a detour. You don’t have to…”

“No,” she shook her head. “I want to do this. I promised someone I’ll deal with this.” Like she promised she’d take care of mother when Garrus ran off to do whatever he wished. _It’s the last time_ , she told herself.

She didn’t have her own armor anymore, so she had to borrow one from C-Sec. The feeling of its weight on her shoulders was strange, bringing back distant memories about basic.

“Alright. We should be there soon then.” He turned around to the controls. She cocked her head to the side. She could see the tension in his jaw and posture. He was nervous, more than he wanted to show. She could tell that the confident attitude was just an act.

It wasn’t her problem though. She opened her datapad, considering writing something to Garrus. She’d sent him a message before their departure, just a short “there’s still something to do about this issue”. He hadn’t responded.

She closed her eyes. _What had I gotten myself into?_

 

The station was once built for a science team to gather information about the accelerated death of a star. It was supposed to be completely destroyed by the Reapers. Now Solana could see that it looked like it had been sliced in half. One of the parts was dark and slowly drifting away, the second lit and functional. _A nice image_ , she thought.

Siodnis was trying to raise someone on the station for a permission to land. Unsuccesfully.

“I don’t like this,” she said. He just nodded solemnly.

“The docking bay should be accessible. It doesn’t seem like they repaired the shutters.” He sighed. “But if it’s a trap, they’ll be waiting for us.”

“You have a grenade launcher,” she said. Sidonis looked at her in confusion, but he quickly caught on what she was thinking about.

“Yes, but you’d have to open the airlock. You’d be exposed if they started shooting. Besides, even if we land, there’s a long corridor between the docking bay and the rest of the station. It’d be stupid to try to attack.”

She had to agree. There were just the two of them. _Garrus always had someone on his side_ , she thought bitterly.

The dark part of the station drew her eye. It was dead, metallic and slowly dissolving, not unlike a corpse, but only a half of it. The other half was still alive, trying to escape its dead sibling. _What should we do to fix their relationship?_

Sidonis had explosives.

“Get close to the second half of the station,” she ordered. Sidonis blinked. “And when you’re at it, please explain why you are in possession of enough weapons to arm a small platoon.”

“What do you want to do?” he asked, but obediently steered the ship where she wanted.

“I want to plant explosives on it and around.” Solana turned on the holo-painting app on her datapad and made a crude drawing of the station. “With enough power, it won’t fall apart, but drift back to the rest.”

“The both parts will collide.” Sidonis nodded. “Will it be enough to destroy it, though?”

“I don’t think the station was built to withstand much external damage,” she explained. “And the damage must’ve weakened its structure. Even if it doesn’t get destroyed, those guys on it will have to run.”

“And we will be waiting in the docking bay?”

Solana smiled.

“Yes.”

 

There was one thing she didn't think of.

One of them had to leave the ship in a spacesuit and plant the explosives. As she was hopeless when it came to piloting, the duty fell on her.

"This suit has a jetpack. You don't need to worry," said Sidonis over a comm. She clenched her teeth, making her way through the ship. There was a lot of debris around her, and it made her nervous. They decided earlier that if she felt it was too much, she was to turn around immediately. "You shouldn't even have to do it," said Sidonis, assuring her the suit was designed to withstand this sort of a walk.

"I know, but it doesn't make me feel better." She managed to get to the cockpit, the last place where they wanted to plant the bombs.

There was silence for a while, letting her plant the explosive in peace. When Siodnis spoke again, however, it took her a while to understand what he was talking about.

"During the War, I used to attack mercs and steal their ships. That's how I got the weapons." His tone was suddenly very sad. She was surprised he remembered the conversation.

"What then? What did you do with them?"

"I smuggled people from the planets hit by the Reapers," he said. "There is... a debt to society I have to pay."

Solana closed her eyes. He  wasn't a classic merc in the end. That felt like a relief, though she couldn't discern why she felt that way.

"Sidonis?"

"Hmm?"

"What are your plans for after we finish this?"


End file.
